Friday, December 11, 2015

You may have thought that Castalia House was done for 2015 following the release of its most recent Political Philosophy bestseller
earlier this week, but nothing could be further from the truth. Not only are we hard at work getting several audiobooks out before the end of the year, but we are less than two weeks away from reviving a series that has lain dormant for 26 years since the end of the Cold War.

That's right, for the first time in nearly three decades, Jerry Pournelle's legendary There Will Be War anthology series of military science fiction and military fact, which served as the inspiration for Castalia's Riding the Red Horse series, is back! Dr. Pournelle has been hard at work putting together a collection of the best of the new breed mil-SF writers with the best of the old guard, and the result is one of the most formidable collections of talent since the second in the series, the epic There Will Be War Volume II, which featured Poul Anderson's "Time Lag", Joel Rosenberg's "Cincinnatus", William F. Wu's "In the Shadow of a Phosphor Screen", and Eric Vinicoff's "'Caster".

Only time will tell if Volume X will prove to be similarly memorable, but the lineup of contributors would be hard to beat. In addition to an introduction by Jerry Pournelle, the new volume features:

Gregory Benford

Charles W. Shao

William S. Lind and LtCol Gregory A. Thiele, USMC

Ben Bova

Allen M. Steele

Michael Flynn

Martin van Creveld

Matthew Joseph Harrington

Cheah Kai Wai

Col Douglas Beason, USAF, ret.

John DeChancie

CDR Phillip E. Pournelle, USN

Russell Newquist

Brian Noggle

David VanDyke

Lt Col Guy R. Hooper, USAF, ret. and Michael L. McDaniel

Poul Anderson

Larry Niven

The much-ballyhooed End of History and the permanent triumph of democratic liberalism has proven to be a mirage. As Dr. Pournelle has repeatedly warned us, There Will Be War.

If you still haven't signed up for the New Release mailing list, you're definitely going to want to do so for this one, as the bonus book offer is even better than the one we offered earlier this week. The book will initially be out in ebook, in audiobook early next year, then in a hardcover omnibus edition with Volume IX sometime in Spring 2016.

But wait, there's more...sign up for the New Release mailing list in the next 30 minutes and Castalia House will make an author of your choice available to spend an entire day at your location. Fun times, right. Ok, scratch that.

Vox, Used to be a big scoff fan but kind of ignored it for a decade or so, although my attention was drawn back to it by the Puppies vs SJW at the Hugos last year. Recently though I've noticed a new space opera on being promoted on SyFy called Expanse based on a series of books by two writers Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck who write jointly under the pen name James S.A. Corey. Are these guys SJW, Pro-Puppies, or apolitical? Was curious before I decide to devote the time to watching it as I am not familiar with them or their work.

I'm trying to imagine how brainstorming sessions could be effectively utilized as a virtual book tour. The primary purpose of a book tour is for the author and publisher to promote awareness and sell books right?

Ok maybe not brainstorms. What about creating a podcast where the author(s) are interviewed about the book and listeners receive a discount code. The interviewers could be selected from the Dread Ilk or Ilk. People could send in questions.

I thought Leviathan Wakes the first book in the series was good but there is a lot of preaching in it plus the type of welfare state depicted for Earth/Luna would consume so many resources they would have never been able to afford to get to Luna much less Mars and Ceres.

What is it about the internet? Here we have an announcement about Castalia House and the revival of There Will be War including a tremendous list of contributors and people begin discussions of other authors and books. Is that rude or is it just me? SOP on the internets?

If peace is an absence of war. It's simple - there'll be peace when no-one is attacking or planning to attack me.

There will be war perhaps should read there is war right now

Politicians are telling us they can promote 'good Islam' - peace loving quiet equal rights Islam. Does it exist? How can you prove it or be certain such a thing exists? Simply because some people claim it does? Against them are a group of self confessed adherents who would kill the "peace movement muslims".How can an honest man decide which version of Islam is legitimate? Would careful study accomplish such a task?

The question/ pursuit breaks down:

How can you have a 'good' interpretation of a any book which is a pack of lies. How can a null and void claim system do any good anywhere?

War and peace is intellectual and spiritual. "There shall be war". No!, "War exists, you are in it, what is your strategy?"

Seriously though, Gregory Benford's "Foundation's Fear" was horrible, but the short story he expanded to save effort was all right, so after Anderson and Niven, that is the one I am most interested in reading.

This is excellent news! I can see my reading hours are going to have to go into compression mode.

A question here: Loki's Child. I am enjoying the living heck out of this thing. In the various nooks and crannies of my varied career I have been on the distant periphery of the music industry. Enough to really enjoy this story. Who the heck is Fenris Wulf? I have been able to find nothing. Loki's Child does not seem to be on Amazon.At first I though it might be 'Daniel' of comment fame here. I read his 'Nicky Magee' and found it much to my liking. Haven't checked lately but for a time I had entered the only review and that a 5 star. In Magee he exhibited either a lot of research or some experience in the music business. Much like Loki's Child.Anyone know?

About finished Loki's Child. I expect that Fenris is Vox in drag.The thing appears, on the face of it, to be a retelling of Atlas Shrugged. I see Jasmine as Dagney; Stan as Galt. etc. Or, I could be totally off the mark.Whatever. This may become the ultimate cult classic in literature. It may be quoted and read for 10,000 years. If you do edit it for sanity at least do a print version of this first offering. Please.